A refinement-tree based partitioning method for dynamic load balancing with adaptively refined grids

The partitioning of an adaptive grid for distribution over parallel processors is considered in the context of adaptive multilevel methods for solving partial differential equations. A partitioning method based on the refinement-tree is presented. This method applies to most types of grids in two and three dimensions. For triangular and tetrahedral grids, it is guaranteed to produce connected partitions; no other partitioning method makes this guarantee. The method is related to the OCTREE method and space filling curves. Numerical results comparing it with several popular partitioning methods show that it computes partitions in an amount of time similar to fast load balancing methods like recursive coordinate bisection, and with mesh quality similar to slower, more optimal methods like the multilevel diffusive method in ParMETIS.